Worldwide, colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common cancer, following lung and breast cancer and leading cause of 650,000 cancer related deaths per year (Jemal, A., Siegel, R., Ward, E., Hao, Y., Xu, J., Thun, M. Cancer Statistics 2009. CA Cancer J Clin 2009; 59; 225-249). In Europe, it is the second largest form of cancer and the second largest cause of death, following lung cancer. However, the CRC screening rates remain suboptimal (˜20%) and lag far behind those for breast, cervical and prostate cancer.
Thus, there is urgent need for new and more compliant screening method for CRC.